Three Stars and the Director - Pick the Movie Quiz

Answer: Get Out

"Get Out" is a psychological horror movie with a serious theme, and strong comic elements. Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a black photographer, meets far more than he bargained for, on a trip to upstate New York to meet the family of his white girlfriend, Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). The Armitages (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener), supposed liberals, have a beautiful home with black servants who behave strangely. They hold a function with their friends, who are particularly interested in Chris's health and fitness. He spots a black face among the friends who he thinks he recognizes, and when he takes a picture of that man, the latter's strange reaction and cries of "Get out!" are signs that all is not as it seems, and that there are bad plans afoot for Chris.

I won't give further spoilers except to say I enjoyed "Get Out" thoroughly. It's a very smart movie with a great dark comedic feel, and some real jeopardy and horror, with acting that is uniformly excellent.

Jordan Peele was best known as the comedy partner of Keegan-Michael Key before his debut as director on "Get Out", which he also wrote (winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay) and co-produced. He followed it up with another psychological horror, "Us", in 2019. Daniel Kaluuya is an English actor who also appeared in "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" (2023). Bradley Whitford, best known for appearing in "The West Wing", also appeared in "The Cabin in the Woods" (2012). Allison Williams, who appeared on TV in "Girls", became known as a scream queen in movies such as "The Perfection" (2018) and "M3GAN" (2022).

Answer: The Gray Man

In "The Gray Man", Ryan Gosling plays Sierra Six, a convicted murderer who is inducted into a secret program by the CIA in return for his freedom. The Sierra personnel take on secretive black ops-type work including assassinations in a "gray" role about which the Agency can deny knowledge. When he is tasked with assassinating a "bad person", the target reveals that he is also a Sierra agent, and warns Sierra Six that there is corruption in the CIA, handing over an encrypted computer drive with details of the misdeeds of their CIA superior, Denny Carmichael (Regé-Jean Page). Six escapes and goes on the run, assisted by CIA agent Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas) and hunted by a psychopathic external contractor hired by Carmichael, Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans). Much violence and increasingly inventive chase action ensues.

I found this mildly enjoyable. The action scenes are very well choreographed, and Evans has a ball as the vicious Hansen. It's clearly an attempt to build a James Bond-type franchise, with the code name, which Gosling jokes about.

Anthony and Joseph Russo have worked together as writers, directors, and producers of several movies, and were best known for helming Marvel cinematic universe movies such as "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Infinity War". Chris Evans was also best known for his work in Marvel movies, playing Captain America. Ryan Gosling's other movies include "The Notebook" and "Barbie". Ana de Armas started in movies in her native Cuba, then starred alongside Gosling in "Blade Runner 2049" and played Marilyn Monroe in "Blonde".

Answer: Inside Out 2

"Inside Out 2" was a sequel to the hit Pixar movie from nine years earlier. It picked up the story of Riley, a teenaged girl who had relocated to California from Minnesota two years earlier because of her father's new job. Riley's progress negotiating her way through the difficulties and challenges of a new school, new friends, and teenage angst are brought to life through the personification of her emotions as they interact inside her head. A "puberty alarm" sets her emotions into change and chaos and brings new emotions to the fore. Riley has to retain existing friendships and make new ones as she changes school and seeks to get into the ice hockey team. Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith repeat their roles as Joy and Sadness, respectively. Maya Hawke plays a new emotion, Anxiety, who catastrophizes things. The emotions have to work together to give Riley a renewed sense of self.

I had low expectations of this movie, after having been disappointed by other Pixar sequels to beloved movies. No reservations - this is up there with the original - it's funny, engaging and touching.

Amy Poehler is best known for her work on "Saturday Night Live" and "Parks and Recreation". Phyllis Smith played Phyllis in "The Office". Maya Hawke, daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, is best known for playing Robin in "Stranger Things". This was Kelsey Mann's debut as director - he had previously worked as script supervisor on one of those disappointing sequels I mentioned - "Monsters University".

Answer: Casino

Martin Scorsese's eighth collaboration with Robert De Niro, "Casino" is a look at the early days of mob involvement in Las Vegas. It's based on a true story researched by Nicholas Pileggi and ultimately told in his book "Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas". Pileggi and Scorsese worked on the script together before the book was released. De Niro plays Sam "Ace" Rothstein, a Jewish gambling maven who is sent to control a casino in Las Vegas by the mob in Chicago. He is brilliant at his job, spotting con artists and weeding out corrupt or incompetent employees. His downfall is caused by three issues. He has a disregard for showing sufficient respect to the local corrupt politicians and a lack of appreciation for how they could harm him. He becomes infatuated with and marries Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), a beautiful con artist and former prostitute. He is associated with the highly violent mafioso Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), who causes havoc with his unpredictability and expectations of favorable treatment, which brings the FBI down on their heads.

This is an entertaining movie, following the Scorsese blueprint of being based on a true story and associated with crime. Stone is really amazing as a sad, damaged woman who never asked for Ace's infatuation, marriage, or gifts. Sadly, it also follows the Scorsese blueprint of being pretty predictable and way too long, at a couple of minutes shy of three hours in length. That's double the length of "Casablanca" for less than half the movie.

Martin Scorsese also directed Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in "Raging Bull", "Goodfellas", and "The Irishman". Sharon Stone's movies include "Total Recall" and "Basic Instinct".

Answer: The Wolf of Wall Street

The fifth movie by Scorsese to feature Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Wolf of Wall Street" (2013) was based on the career of convicted financial criminal Jordan Belfort. It was an adaptation of Belfort's memoir of the same name, and its screenplay was written by Terence Winter. It followed the career of aspiring stockbroker Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) who loses his job on Wall Street very early due to the 1987 crash known as Black Monday. He moves into a business model of selling penny stocks aggressively and surrounds himself with acolytes whom he trains in his high-pressure selling techniques. Chief among these is Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), who throws his all in with Belfort. They misrepresent the value of stocks, which they then offload at the top of the market. This causes them to become wildly successful, and they celebrate their wins extravagantly, with drugs and prostitutes. Belfort divorces his wife and marries lingerie designer Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie). Belfort and his company's fraudulent activity become increasingly successful, and they attract the attention of the FBI, with a frantic set of events culminating in Jordan losing Naomi and being betrayed by Donnie. After a spell in prison, he ends up as a motivational speaker.

This is an entertaining movie with hilarious performances from Hill and Matthew McConaughey as a Wall Street mentor to Belfort. DiCaprio is fine and Robbie is excellent. However, the real-life rise and fall arc is a bit too much like other Scorsese movies for me. And it's three hours long.

Scorsese and DiCaprio have also collaborated on movies such as "The Departed" and "The Aviator". Margot Robbie has also starred in "Barbie" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood". Jonah Hill is known for comedies "Superbad" and "21 Jump Street".

The picture is of a Arctic wolf.

Answer: Drive

"Drive" features Ryan Gosling in the lead role as someone just known as The Driver. He works in a variety of roles associated with cars, including as a mechanic, a stunt driver in movies, and as a criminal getaway driver. He aspires to be a racing driver. A quiet man with few friends, he gets close to a neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her son. When Irene's husband, Standard Gabriel, is released from prison, The Driver gets roped into assisting him in a robbery. It all goes wrong. There is a double cross, Gabriel is killed, and The Driver ends up on the run with $1M of mob money, needing to protect Irene and her son, and somehow escape with his life.

I found this movie very engrossing. It has a quiet tone, away from its violence and action sequences, with Mulligan and Gosling projecting an enigmatic stillness, which makes Gosling's bursts of aggression surprising and shocking. The supporting cast is particularly strong, with Bryan Cranston playing The Driver's garage-owning employer and friend, and Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman amusing and brutal as ruthless gangsters.

Ryan Gosling's career has progressed from "The All-New Mickey Mouse Club" to become a leading movie star, collecting Academy Award nominations for "La La Land" and "Barbie". Carey Mulligan has been Oscar-nominated for "An Education" and "Promising Young Woman". Bryan Cranston was best known for his TV roles in "Malcolm in the Middle "and "Breaking Bad". Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn also directed "Bronson" and a further collaboration with Gosling, "Only God Forgives".

Hopefully the picture of road diversions on Mulholland Drive helped.

Answer: Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

"Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" was a sequel to the 2004 movie "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle". It follows the comedic misadventures of Harold Lee (played by John Cho) and Kumar Patel (Kal Penn), as they attempt to visit Amsterdam. Confusion and panic about Kumar's smokeless bong on the airplane leads to them being assumed to be terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay by the US authorities. They escape relatively easily, and their adventures in trying to clear their names involve crossing paths with ex-President George W. Bush, and Neil Patrick Harris (playing a debauched version of himself) and being betrayed by a friend of Harold's who is engaged to Kumar's ex-girlfriend.

This is an entertaining movie that, despite being very silly and relying on gross-out comedy, also has some sharp satirical touches. The supporting cast, including Rob Corddry, playing the Homeland Security Secretary whose racism is matched by his stupidity, and James Adomian as President Bush, are excellent.

John Cho had a small but significant role in the "American Pie" movies and starred as Sulu in the J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" reboot. Kal Penn was known for having to quit his role in "House" in order to work in the Obama White House. Neil Patrick Harris was best known for appearing as a child doctor in "Doogie Howser, M.D.". Directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg were the writers of "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" and also worked as directors on further Harold & Kumar projects.

The picture is a CIA map of Cuba, featuring Guantanamo Bay, from the 1980s.

Answer: This Is the End

"This Is the End" was made in 2013 by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who both wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the movie (Goldberg in an uncredited cameo). It features a huge cast of actors playing themselves in a comedic story set at the Los Angeles house of James Franco, who is hosting a housewarming party. The rapture occurs, taking the chosen people up into heaven, and the movie stars find themselves left behind as the apocalypse occurs, with an earthquake taking place, a sinkhole forming outside the Franco residence, and strange creatures appearing. They are very self-centred people and find that they need to act selflessly to undergo the rapture and escape the hellscape.

This movie is outrageous and pretty funny, with Emma Watson enjoying herself playing against her image, Danny McBride becoming a force of chaos, and the rift between Rogen's friends Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel being a funny plot point.

Seth Rogen appeared in "Freaks and Geeks" as a teenager and went on to star in movies such as "Knocked Up" and "Pineapple Express". Evan Goldberg was a writer on the latter and "Superbad". Emma Watson is best known for starring as Hermione in the "Harry Potter" movies. James Franco was also in "Freaks and Geeks" and "Pineapple Express".

Answer: The Interview

"The Interview" is a comedy directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg from a screenplay by Dan Sterling. It features a fictional sensationalist talk show whose host, Dave Skylark (Franco) and producer, Aaron Rapaport (Rogen), stung by criticism of being lightweight, decide to interview North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (Park), who is a fan of their show. The CIA engages with the duo and persuades them to assassinate Kim because of the threat to the world from his nuclear weapon program. Skylark is charmed by Kim, and abandons the assassination attempt, throwing away the ricin gum they had intended to use. Meanwhile Rapaport gets close to the North Korean propaganda operative Sook-yin Park (Diana Bang). When Skylark sees that Kim has misled him, the two Americans work with Sook to humiliate and expose Kim during a live interview. Kim is killed as the two Americans effect their escape, and Sook takes over North Korea and makes it a peaceful democracy.

This movie hit a lot of controversy with diplomatic pressure and threats from the North Korean government because of the comedic treatment of their leader. Sony Pictures, the maker of the picture, was attacked by computer hackers, and amended the movie somewhat before release. I found it pretty amusing, with Franco and Park particularly effective in their budding bromance before the dictator's real side is exposed.

This was the second movie directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, after "This Is the End", which also starred James Franco. Randall Park also appeared in the sitcom "Fresh Off the Boat", and the movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania".

Answer: The Holiday

"The Holiday" is a romantic comedy about two women from opposite sides of the Atlantic, both unlucky in their personal lives, who swap houses and find romance. Amanda Woods (Diaz), a successful maker of movie trailers from Los Angeles is dumped by her boyfriend. Iris Simpkins (Winslet), a downtrodden society columnist at London's "Daily Telegraph" who lives in Surrey, is unable to move on from her obsession with star journalist Jasper Bloom (Rufus Sewell), who takes advantage of her and whose neediness keeps her thinking the relationship might develop, even as his engagement to another woman is announced. Iris places her idyllic Surrey cottage on a house swap website, and Amanda impulsively decides to try it for two weeks over the Christmas period. The two women soon hook up with new men - Amanda with Iris's brother, played by Jude Law, and Iris with Amanda's ex-boyfriend's colleague played by Jack Black. Additionally, Iris meets a reclusive veteran Hollywood writer, played by Eli Wallach, and the two help each other come out of themselves.

This movie is more or less a big budget version of the Hallmark Christmas movies. Director Nancy Meyers clearly went for casting against type with Jude Law playing a saintly single dad, and Jack Black a sensitive and thoughtful musician. I found it incredibly irritating. There were good bits - I really liked Amanda's movie trailers - but the two women both find new life partners within hours without even leaving their holiday homes, I just couldn't believe in Winslet as a frumpy Bridget Jones type, and the stars were wasted in the roles. The big thing that raised my hackles was Eli Wallach telling Iris that of course Cary Grant came from Surrey, like her. Why put such a dumb error into the mouth of someone who was supposed to be a Hollywood insider?

Nancy Meyers is known as a highly successful writer and director, with her movies including "What Women Want" and "Something's Gotta Give". Cameron Diaz has appeared in movies such as "The Mask" and "Shrek", Kate Winslet is known for "Titanic" and "Mare of Easttown". Eli Wallach was a character actor known for his brilliant performances in "The Magnificent Seven", "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", and "The Misfits".